Brrr-ownies (TWD)

I'm back!!! The hubs and I had an amazing two weeks traveling through Italy. Along with the breathtaking sights, we indulged ourselves with food, wine, and gelato.

Just before we left for vacation, a friend gave me this advice: "Eat, drink and enjoy yourselves silly while in Italy. I promise that you will not gain a pound." Yeah, right! After returning, the hubs and I each hopped on the scale to assess the damage. We were dumbfounded - I didn't gain a single pound, and my hubs actually lost 7 lbs. WTF?!!! My friend was inifinitely wiser that I thought! Forget dieting, we need to travel to Italy more often.

Vacationing was wonderful, but there is something to be said about being back home. I missed baking and cooking, so I couldn't wait to get busy in the kitchen. This week's Tuesdays With Dorie recipe for Brrr-ownies was a nice warm up to get back into the swing of things.

The recipe (which you can find at Karen's blog, Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life) is essentially a brownie with chopped peppermint patties folded in (in my case, I used Trader Joe's mint creams). When it comes to brownies I'm a purist - no messin' with nuts or mixins. I kept an open mind to see how this would turn out.

Maybe it was the jetlag that affected my baking mojo, but my brownies turned out a bit dry. Instead of tossing the batch, I made a super quick and easy Philadelphia-style vanilla ice cream, and folded bits of the brownie to make a mint chocolate brownie ice cream.

Mint chip is my all time favorite ice cream flavor, so I was definitely curious to see how this would turn out. The verdict --- not too shabby. The mint flavor is subtle, and I loved the how the formerly dry brownie bits turned chewy when incorporated into the ice cream.

No, your eyes are not deceiving you --- this is a mini ice cream cone. Cute, isn't it?

I found these cute little guys a while back, and if you're interested in these mini-cones, you can check them out here. The interior of these cones are lined with chocolate, and make perfect "shot glasses" for Baileys, White Russians, etc. Needless to say, these innocent looking cones are dangerous at our summer BBQs.

Anyways, I'm glad to be getting my blogging back on. I'm curious to hear how the other Tuesdays With Dorie bakers felt about this recipe - check out the TWD Blogroll to hear what everyone had to say.